The raspberry is a plant that produces sweet and tart fruit in the summer to early fall seasons. Even though a lot of people grow their own raspberries, many raspberries can be found growing wild in fields and along roadsides. Personally, I think the raspberries that grow wild taste better. I think it is because they are untouched by chemicals and pesticides. Raspberry plants have a lot of different purposes other than the fruit it produces. The flower on raspberry plants are an excellent source of pollen for honeybees. Helpful hint, because of this don't grow them to close to your residence. The leaves of a raspberry plant can be used fresh or dried in herbal teas. And lastly, the alternative alcohol sweetener Xylitol can and is extracted from raspberries. So as you can see raspberries don't just produce great tasting fruit they also help in other areas.As for the care for raspberry plants, in the first year the plant will grow quite readily. Producing long stalky canes. If your plant produces flowers in the first year of planting and growth, the rule of thumb is, to remove them so the raspberry plant grows stronger and bigger. In the second year, your raspberry plant should now start producing raspberries that you can eat. Raspberry plants grow well in spring and summer. Then they should harden and become dormant during the winter months. If you readily water your raspberry plants during the summer, you should decrease the watering in late summer to early autumn so the plants have time to harden properly.
Raspberries are vigorous growing plants. They will produce suckers that will grow underground, and produce new plants. The best way of stopping your raspberries from growing where you don't want them to, is every year after the ground has thawed from the winter, push a spade down into the ground to create a boundary in which your raspberries will grow. And when the new plants start to grow outside of that boundary you can dig up those suckers and new plantings.
